


Green Light

by iguessimawriter



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, First Time, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Ned Dayne as a Plot Device, bartender gendry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:34:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23795473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iguessimawriter/pseuds/iguessimawriter
Summary: She was happy.She was home.She was mending.She shared a truth that she now realized was probably a mistake.Oh she was in trouble.ORA game of two truths and a lie makes Arya Stark reconcile her past and maybe get the guy.
Relationships: Arya Stark & Sansa Stark, Arya Stark/Gendry Waters, Jon Snow & Arya Stark
Comments: 17
Kudos: 135





	1. oh, I wish I could get my things and just let go

Arya felt the blush spread it’s way across her face as Margaery Tyrell spit out her drink on the table.

“What do you mean you’ve never had sex before?”

Sansa politely but firmly elbowed her girlfriend in the ribs before giving Arya a smile that was both a comfort and an apology.

“She just means you're so worldly!”

“No,” Marg followed, “I mean she's so hot.” Another elbow.

“I think you mean I’m so pathetic?” Arya finished downing the rest of her drink. She was excited when Sansa had invited her out with her new girlfriend, Margaery. The two had grown close since Arya’s return from Bravos. With Arya’s only friends being her childhood mates Hot Pie and Gendry, Sansa was good about pulling Arya out for a girl's night, and she really appreciated it. Gods know she often needed it. And she liked Margaery too, at least what she knew of her. Their families had always run in the same circles, but it wasn’t until the last few months her and Sansa hit it off.

So when Sansa had agreed to come to Gendry’s bar, The Forge, instead of a club she was ecstatic. Arya and Gendry shared a flat above the bar, and while sometimes noisy, it really made it easy to get a pint or hang out with her best friend. At twenty she was finishing school at Winterfell University. Her days were filled with reading and homework, so close to being done with her Psychology Degree. With so much therapy in the last year, she realized all she wanted to do was help others. She had also just started to run again.

Her nights were filled with hanging with the boys or catching up with her family. Baking with Hot Pie. Watching movies with John. Laughing with Gendry. In a way, it felt like she never left. The semester she had to take off after the accident seemed so long ago, and she was finally getting everything back on track. Then one silly game and she remembers how much her Bravosi adventure cost her. No, how much _he_ cost her. She was too old for her age in some ways but still so much to experience in others. She took a breath and tried to remember what Syriel, her therapist, would tell her.

_It’s okay to be upset. But do not wallow, don’t send yourself to the past. Not today._

It was funny how a seemingly normal night could just make her remember everything bad from the last few years. At some point three drinks in, Sansa decided two truths and a lie was necessary. Arya was feeling good, better than she had in a while. She was tipsy and bubbly and giggling with her sister and her best friend was tending bar smiling up at her every so often with a look in his eyes she was seeing more and more often nowadays but hadn’t had time to make sense of yet.

She was happy.

She was home.

She was mending.

She shared a truth that she now realized was probably a mistake.

“No! You just seem so mature, and well fit and all,” Margaery butted in, “And didn’t you have that older boyfriend for a while?”

The hardest elbow was shot at Margaery’s ribs and while embarrassed, she had never appreciated Sansa more. She didn’t blame Marg, not really. It wasn’t a fun story and one that even harder to fully tell.

“No it's okay Sansa, how would she know?” Sansa gave her an empathetic smile. Sansa knew better than anyone what it was like to be under someone else’s control and lose everything from it. It's part of the reason they got on so well now.

She never knew how to explain Jaquen to people. Her hero? No, that was beyond tainted. Her mentor? Also fucked. The abusive prick who preyed on a much younger girl, promised her the world, told her she was talented and kept her trapped in a country thousands of miles away from her family for two years under the rouse of a track scholarship, only escaping when his girlfriend went crazy and stabbed her, causing her to almost bleed to death and losing any future in running?

Sounds about right.

“So you know how I moved to Bravos for college on a track scholarship?” she started tucking her hair behind her ear staring down into her glass. Damn, she wished she had another drink. Marg nodded and Arya continued,“ Jaquen wasn’t my boyfriend, he was my track coach who got beyond possessive. I got in a little too deep, wanting to prove myself and let him control way too much. Dating was never allowed by him and wanting to be the best I listened. Everything he told me to do I just did, no questions asked. It got to the point where he was controlling my work, my school, and my communication with others. His girlfriend thought something was going on between us sexually and it wasn't. One day she showed up at track practice and stabbed me in the stomach. I almost bleed to death, my parents found out and now I’m home. Now I have unbelievable trust issues, so that's a no on the most intimate act you can do with someone from me” She finished with a tight smile, trying to make light of it all, suddenly feeling out of breath.

“Oh my gods Arya I am so sorry I didn’t know.” Margaery looking between both sisters, empathy, and shock on her face.

“Don’t be, really.” Arya said honestly, not having it in her to blame Margaery, “It's in the past.” 

Before another word could be said a drink was being put on the table, a pint full of amber beer, Arya’s favorite. She looked up to see Gendry standing over them with a grin, but she could tell it was fake from a mile away. It didn’t reach his eyes, and the tight clench in his jaw gave away any face he was putting on. Of the many things Arya Stark found completely fascinating about Gendry Waters, his jaw was in the top five. It was his tell, and right now it was screaming concern. She was momentarily flashed back to the last time she saw it that tight when she had told him the whole Brazos story, stabbing and all. She thought his head was going to explode. It wasn’t long after he invited her to live with him, his bar apartment was a much more convenient location from school than the family house. Her parents were hesitant with her leaving again but it wasn’t too far and it was _Gendry_. The same boy who went from John’s friend to hers. The boy who wrapped her scraped knees, and went to every one of her high school track meets.The one who knew all her secrets. The one who sat in the waiting room for twelve hours when she was airlifted to Winterfell for surgery after the stabbing, because he didn't want her to be alone when she woke up, even though she hadn’t responded to one of his emails in six months. Obviously, they soon relented.

“Ladies” he started, nodding to Sansa and Marg before his eyes landed on their true destination, her. “You all right?” he asked in a voice reserved for her, sliding into their booth while throwing a bar towel over his shoulder. “You’ve been looking spooked all night.”

“Watching me Waters?”

He rolled his eyes and gave her a pointed look. Damn, flirty Arya wasn't going to work tonight. He knew something was actually wrong.

“I’m fine!” she responded because that's what she was trying to be. She wondered if she had any tells he would notice, anything she could hide to avoid rehashing this conversation once they headed upstairs at the end of the night. “Just needed another,” she added as she took a gulp of beer. Simultaneously, a crash of breaking glass came from behind the bar, something that Gendry needed to attend to.

Gendry ignored her gulp but sighed at being called away. He stood and but simply raised his eyebrows at her, in a way that let her know this conversation wasn’t over, before briefly hitting her head with the towel. She feigned being shocked. 

“We’ll talk later yeah?” But she knew it wasn’t a question.

“Sure, stupid,” she smiled and he walked away, “Thanks for the beer!” she called after him. He turned to face her while walking backwards, still making his way to the bar, bowing ever so slightly extending his arms so his forearms were in the air, towel still in hand.

“As my lady commands,” she stuck out her tongue at him and a quick, real smile formed on his face before he was back behind the bar.

“Holy hell what the FUCK was that?” Marg said once Gendry was out of hearing range.

“That's Gendry, the one I was telling you about,” Sansa said before Arya could answer as she was taking another swig of beer.

“That’s your roommate?” Marg said, turning to Arya, “The one who's in love with you?”

If she hadn’t swallowed the beer so fast she surely would have spit it out.

“Gendry is not in love with me!”

The couple shared a knowing look but said nothing.

“Oh come off it! Were mates! And he’s older and he’s...I mean you’ve seen how he looks! There’s no way he would be interested in Arya Horseface.”

It was Sansa’s turn to scoff, “Arya you must be blind if you think any man-or women for that matter- wouldn’t like you for your looks because you're gorgeous.” Arya rolled her eyes but her sister continued, “But beyond physical looks, have you never really noticed the way he can’t keep his eyes off you? He’s been like that since we were kids.”

“He’s a little protective! So is Jon.”

“But he’s not Jon. he’s Gendry,” Sansa said, leaning slightly over the table, “And if you let him I know he would want to be more.”

Her head was spinning, and not from the pint she just finished.

“At the very least I’m sure he would be a tender, _attentive,_ lover if he scurries over her with another drink the moment he sees something may be wrong,” Marg added in her flirty fun way that would be almost understandable coming from anyone else.

Arya felt, even more, blush rise to her cheeks.

“Isn’t it time for someone else to spill some truths?” she said and Marg and Sansa laughed before continuing on about some TV show. Arya sneaked a glance at the bar, where Gendry was cleaning up the shattered glass from the floor, his henley now rolled up to his elbows exposing his forearms. She could have dirty, _dirty_ thoughts about those forearms.

Oh was she in trouble.

**XXX**

The conversation with Sansa and Marg lightened up once the Gendry talk was dropped, The couple had left about half an hour ago when the last call was called, with the kissing of cheeks and apologies following them out the door, as she moved to the bar to chat with Gendry. She didn’t blame them for the awkwardness of the evening and overall she had a fun night. 

But damn, it had given her a lot to think about.

_A lot_ to think about.

She had always had a crush on Gendry, but she knew it was unreasonable. He was older and gentle, and kind and experienced, and well he was too much. He made her brain short circuit when she thought of him that way. It would be too much for Arya to let it be more than a crush. Because if she did, she might just fall in love with him, which means she could lose him, and with everything that had happened over the past few years she simply could not risk another loss.

“Hey,” Gendry appeared, placing a small disposable cup of maraschino cherries in front of her. This was their thing. He would give her cocktail fruit and solve her problems while he cleaned the bar. “You okay?”

Arya didn’t even know where to begin. Tonight had brought up a lot of emotions. One minute she was embarrassed about being a virgin, then she hated Jaquen, and now she was considering her best friend as more than such even when it would never happen. She didn’t know where to start or where to end and nervously pulled her hair behind her ears.

“So it’s serious then? You only shut up for more than five seconds and muss with your hair when it’s serious.” he leaned forward, the bar still between them but coming closer, “You can tell me you know.” People always said Gendry was quiet, but since coming back it was like all he wanted to do was talk.

She sighed, she should tell him. At least partially, what was going on in her head.

“Marg didn’t know about Jaquen at all. I sort of had to give her the dirty details over two truths and a lie,” she mumbled out before popping a cherry in her mouth

“Fuck Arry,” he said making his way around to the customer side of the bar and sinking into the stool next to her. “Do you want to talk about it?” he said, stealing a cherry from the dish himself.

“I just want it to stop hurting. No, actually, I want it to stop mattering. I want so many things in my life to stop being defined by what I did or didn’t do because of him.” the tears sprung to her eyes before she could even stop them.

“Arya,” Gendry starts shifting so turning more towards her, his hand falling to her knee in an attempt of comfort., but she didn’t pause.

“And there’s so much I haven’t done. I haven’t finished school, I haven’t been with my family, fuck I haven't fallen in love or even had sex!” She wasn’t proud of this, admitting it all to him, embarrassed beyond belief. So why not top it all off by bursting into full-blown ugly crying in the middle of the empty bar?

“Hey hey hey,” he started, putting his arm around her shoulders and pressing her face slightly into his chest. He smelled like Gendry, like pine and mint, “You’re going to have time for all those things, and anything else you decide you want to do. You have time and nothing you want is lost. Delayed a bit, but not lost. Never lost”

“How would you know?” she said through a sound that was part sob, part hiccup.

“Because I've been exactly where you are Arya. Well not exactly, but I thought the same thing when my mom died. I was seventeen and had no idea what to do. I just blamed cancer for all it stole from me. I got into that awful relationship with Mel which you were lucky enough to not be around for, and I just thought that that was who I was supposed to be. It wasn’t until Davos had me start training to run this place that I found purpose again. So I got out of my shit relationship, and started going after what I wanted until I realized that yeah, cancer had taken my mother, and that might always hurt but I wouldn’t let it take anything else.”

It might be the most words she had ever heard him string together at once. She remembered Gendry’s mom as a sweet blonde lady who would make cookies he would bring to the Starks. Arya never knew her well, as she was only eleven when she died, but she knew that was when Gendry started becoming a more common face around the Stark house.

She also knew he was right. In a way, only Gendry truly understood what she had been through. Not just because he knew her best, but of all her friends and family, he was the only one who knew what it was like to completely lose yourself to something else in a way that changed every single facet of her life.

She sniffled a bit into his shirt before looking to his eyes from under his arm and saying softly, “when did you get so smart, stupid.”

He let out a hardy laugh, “Maybe it’s always been there, you just didn’t know to look.” He was rubbing small smoothing circles on her knee that were driving her crazy, making her wonder what else his hands could do.

She realized how easy it would be to kiss him right now. So painfully easy. She would just have to push herself up and to the left, and his lips would be on hers. They would probably taste of cherry. But, she knew wiser, and making choices impulsively was something she was working on in therapy. She went the safer route and leaned out of his touch to grab another cherry from the dish, no matter how much she didn’t want to.

“Thank you,” she said looking at his face now, “I mean it when I say as much as everything has sucked, being back here with you is just so--”

“Nice,” he finished for her, taking the last cherry from the cup, “it's been nice.”

She nodded, and a yawn broke through her uncontrollably. “Well, maybe it’s time to head up, sleep some of tonight off.”

“Of course, I’m going to stay down here, have to balance the register.”

She smiled at him and hopped off her barstool, her body missing the feel of his hands as she made her way to the door behind in the bar that led to the stairway to their apartment.

“Hey Arya,” Gendry called after her, his voice now laced with slight uncertainty, which one look at his tight jaw confirmed, “I’m glad I didn’t lose you.”

“Me too.” she said with a smile as she went up the stairs.

In the weeks to come, she would look back on that exchange as more than just a nice comfort or an uncomfortable night.

No.

It was the moment everything between them changed.


	2. but I hear sounds in my mind, brand new sounds in my mind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This whole chapter is Arya basically freaking out because she realized she loves Gendry. Enjoy!

In the next few weeks everything felt, for the most part, the same, but somehow completely shifted. Arya was in the busy time of her year, with finals, therapy, and her new running recovery plan that seemed to overtake everything, making room for little much of anything else. She told herself this was good. She needed to just focus on herself. And, as an extra treat, this would keep her from deciding what her now blazing feelings for Gendry meant.

It wasn’t like anything changed. Not really. She had always liked him. They were still roommates, best friends. But now she was acutely aware of his glances, how his eyes would hover over her whenever she was in a room. How if they were in a group and someone did something that was funny, or cringey, or just amusing their eyes immediately went to each other.

They could have whole conversations with just their glances.

She now knew he made her coffee every morning without being asked, something she obviously _knew_ before, but never took the time to consider the meaning. She knew he made his work schedule around hers so they could have two nights a week to just hang out together. She knew he knew when she needed to talk or when she needed to just be alone, and he never not once resented her for it.

She knew she couldn’t stop thinking about what it would be like to have sex with him. She was a virgin, so that was entirely new territory for her, but for the first time being intimate with someone didn’t just scare her, it excited her. She wanted to know what it would be like with him. It was so easy to see him in a towel or cleaning the bar and let her mind wonder...

She knew she loved him, and a small part of her now saw he may feel the same way. It scared the shit out of her. 

Arya Stark was used to being scared. Scared of Jaquen, scared of not being the best, scared of losing the people she loved. Being scared is what led her to run, both physically and mentally. It was one of the _wonderful_ realizations she made about herself in therapy. She knew what Syriel would tell her if she had been honest to him about avoiding her.

_Running does not give you the control you want Arya. It simply makes you feel safer at the moment but prolongs actual resolution._

She just couldn't bring herself to tell him yet. She knew that defeated the cardinal rule of therapy: be honest. But, if Arya told Syriel her feelings for Gendry, it somehow made them more real. And if they weren’t spoken, they couldn’t be real and she couldn’t be let down. It was the opposite of sound logic, but for weeks it’s how she got through her hundred-page papers, five-mile sprints, and two nights a week alone with the man that she knew she loved, laughing while her heart ached in a cliche wanting way she hated. She simply pretended if she didn’t talk about it her feelings weren’t real. 

But everyone has a breaking point.

Arya Stark’s?

Apparently shoe shopping with Sansa. 

Sansa needed heels (correction, she wanted heels. Gods knew she had enough of them already and did not need the added height) for some charity event Marg and her were going to that Arya had used school as an excuse to get out of. She was going to miss getting to skip every function she didn’t want to attend by citing school, as it was a near bulletproof explanation for absences. Arya needed new running shoes, so when Sansa mentioned she was going to the mall after calling for the fifth time to apologize for the two truths and a lie fiasco. After her fifth granting of forgiveness, Arya opted to tag along. 

Sansa had already found her heels, a strappy black pair even Arya couldn’t deny were cute, as the sisters set their sights on the athletic section before getting lunch. It was as Arya laced up her section pair to try on an all-black version of the all-white sneakers she owned, that Sansa decided to speak.

“So, how's Gendry?” Sansa asked in her Sansa way, all-knowing but sweet.

“He’s fine,” Arya said with faux indifference she hoped her sister couldn't see through.

“Fine?” Sanda started putting on a pair of athletic sunglasses that were on a rotating stand next to the bench Arya sat, “or _fine_?” she finished sharply whipping off the sunglasses and giving Arya a goofy, pointed look.

Arya could hardly contain her groan mixed with a laugh, “Not this again.”

Sansa squeezed her way onto the too-small bench, “Will you just give me three minutes to make my case and when I’m done I will never speak about it ever again unless you want to?”

Arya gave her sister an apprehensive look but slowly pulled out her cellphone and set the timer to one minute, making sure her sister was aware of the time change.

“Go.”

“Gendry loves you Arya. He loves you in a painfully obvious, schoolboy, best friend, soulmate way most people would kill for. Now if you truly don’t love him that way I will drop this forever, but I don’t think that's true. I think you're afraid of having someone care for you. Trust me, I get it. After Joffery, I didn’t think I would be with anyone else again either. I thought love was just pain and being fucked-up. But now, with Marg, it’s hard to imagine ever feeling that way. More than anything in the world I want you to be happy Arya, and I have never seen you the way you are with him. It's like, a switch gets lit, the light turns green, or something. Isn’t that worth exploring?”

There was slight wetness to her eyes she hoped Sansa didn’t notice. “What if I mess it up Sansa? He’s my best friend.”

“Oh Arya,” Sansa said a comforting arm coming across her little sister's shoulders, “that’s exactly why it’s worth it.”

The timer rang.

Arya chose the black sneakers.

Sansa paid for her shoes.

They got food court Chinese food and talked about The Real Housewives of Kingslanding for the remainder of the afternoon, Arya’s love life left behind from conversation.

XXX

Arya opted for a night that night. Finals week was starting, and she needed a night in to relax and prepare for her exams. While she was confident in her knowledge, but this point she was running on adrenaline and needed to take some time to destress. Gendry was a bit disappointed when she told him she wouldn’t be at the bar, but he understood. (Of course, he understood) So, she made some mac and cheese, watched bad reality tv and went to bed aggressively early.

She always had nightmares when thunderstorms came. Ever since she was a kid, even if the storm started after she fell asleep, without fail it infiltrated into her brain and caused for the kind of night terrors that as a child led her to her parents' bed, but as an adult usually led to a glass of water and staying up the rest of the night.

This dream was different though. 

It started with her running on her high school track, the one she had run a thousand times before, the one she still ran if she was having a particularly good day. Round and round the track she went. The bleachers and rest of the lanes were empty except for Jon, who sat in the front row rooting her on every time she lapped him. 

“Come on Little Wolf! Get through it!”

She suddenly felt a pain in her side and looked down, her uniform covered in blood. In front of her now stood Jaqun and his girlfriend huge, scary smiles on their faces

As she collapsed her knees her surroundings changed and she was in a hospital in Bravos. In a drugged-out haze she recognized Jon at her side, speaking so quietly she could have sworn he was just thinking.

“Come on Little Wolf. Get through it.”

“Don’t worry,” she slurred in response, “I will.”

This was a memory she had awake, but she was never sure how true it was. Yes, Jon had told the story of how it showed her true strength to claim she would get through it to anyone who would listen, but she was never sure if she actually remembered it, or if her mind just made the memory from the pieces she learned existed. It was sort of like watching back home videos from when you were a child and thinking you remembered that day.

The scene shifts again in that dream-like way that only makes sense when you are dreaming it. She’s at the bar, under Gendry’s arm as he comforts her. Then he speaks.

“Maybe it’s always been there, you just didn’t know to look.”

And then they’re kissing, his lips and hers crashing in a way that feels so so right. So new but also like ancient history. His hand finds its way through her hair as she moves closer to his body. She had never felt a kiss like this before. One that left her lips blazing. One that made her feel wanted. One that causes her to straddle his waist uncomfortably in the barstool, but not caring for a second because the most important thing is to be close to him. His lips make their way across her neck in all the right places, and Arya can hardly contain the moan escaping her lips and his hand makes its way under her sweater.

He smirks against her neck before pulling away to meet her eyes, one hand half up her shirt while the other reaches for a fallen piece of hair he tucks behind her ear, trailing his fingers down her neck making her shiver.

“This is what you want yeah? This is okay?” he asks in a way that's just so earnest and so _Gednry,_ big but sweet _,_ she wants him in every way all over again.

She's about to answer yes yes yes everyday yes when she hears the boom.

Thunder crashes and wakes her up full-blown panic. She glances down and thankfully sees no blood on her shirt or sheets, but also regretfully sees no Gendry insight. Her feet hit the ground before she even has full control of them, as she runs to the kitchen sink, which was closer than the bathroom. Arya splashes water on her face, letting the droplets hit the counter as she places her hands on each side of the counter, breathing in and out deeply, trying to stop her tears and heartbeat.

It's just a dream.

It's just a dream.

It's just a dream.

Except this time part of it, she wishes were just a nightmare, while the second half she wouldn’t mind manifesting to reality. 

She doesn't know what time it is, or how long she stands above the sink, periodically splashing water on her face to try to get some sort of control of herself. She didn’t know when she slid down the cabinets, but her body was still shaking from something she wasn’t sure of, the chill of the water not helping as she was only wearing a pair of panties and one of Jon’s old t-shirts to bed. She closed her eyes and tries to control her breathing, but the storm is picking up and Arya really doesn’t like storms. She didn’t notice when Gendry walked in until he slid beside her on the ground, clearly just finishing his shift, gently to not startle her. She only realized when he took her hand into his.

“Arya,” he says in a voice she’s grown to know is him trying to calm someone, whether it's a bar patron, Theon on game night, or in this instance, her. “You’re okay, okay? It’s just a storm.”

Gendry of course knew her fear of storms. She didn’t quite know how to explain this shaking had to do with a mix of a storm, nightmare, and PG sex dream, but figured that was something best avoided in therapy. But just him being there, meeting her where she was on their kitchen floor without hesitation or questioning, it made her feel better. 

“I-I know,” she said in a shaky breath, suddenly realizing how soaked the front of her shirt was from splashing the facet on her face. Nothing like putting your best foot forward for the man you’re in love with right? She turned to face him and was almost taken aback by how close he was. Holding hands. Her legs bare and him in her favorite sleeve rolled flannel. She could get used to this closeness if it wasn’t a requirement she has a breakdown of some kind to get here. She almost tricked herself into seeing him glance at her lips, then back to her eyes. His were filled with so much lately, comfort, love, and something dark she couldn’t place. He really was beautiful. “How was your shift?” she asked trying for once to make their conversation not about her and her issues.

“Slow, boring without you around. Should pick up next week though, with finals celebrations and all that.”

She smiled softly at the thought of school being done. Jon had promised to take her out next week to celebrate. She hadn’t hung out with him in ages and nothing sounded better than having an evening with Jon all to herself.

Everything was going to be okay. 

“Speaking of which you should get to bed Arry, shouldn’t mess up your sleep schedule before your tests.”

She nodded with a sigh and stood facing him, her hand attempting to help him up from their squatted position as well. She didn't think about the height difference between them, and how he was so much bigger than her, so the force of pulling him up made them both lose their footing, pushing her back against the cabinet, their linked hands making him follow.

They were so close, their waists perfectly aligned. His one arm had grabbed her waist at the impact and it stayed there, making her back pressed against the cabinet but her front all on him, close enough to feel his heart rapidly beating. She looked up at him, a strand of hair shifting in front of her eye, and she hoped with everything in her he would push it back as he had done in her dream. All she needed was a small sign that she wasn’t making this up, that he could be interested in her too. Instinctively she licked her lips, her eyes falling to his lips ever so slightly. She could have sworn he was bending his head down, so she started to move her’s up--

But it never made it all the way.

He didn’t push back her hair.

He didn’t kiss her.

His jaw was so tight as he stepped away. He looked almost mad and she felt like she should apologize, but before she could even process any of this he spoke,

“Um sorry about that. Have a good night Arya,” he said as he scattered into his room, leaving Arya alone in the kitchen.

And just like that all of her doubts had been answered, and Arya realized she was something she had accused Gendry of being all along.

_Stupid._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who left a kudos, comment, or bookmark on the first chapter! I'm not a very confident writer, but these two are so fun and the support really helped me pluck up the courage to post chapter 2! I do have an outline and parts of the last two chapters already written, so hopefully, I'll post them soon as well. Also, I apologize for any grammar or spelling errors!


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